Wickedly Fun Halloween Cupcakes

Whip up Halloween treats in cupcake form and dazzle your Halloween party guests. Our Halloween cupcake recipes and decorating ideas for monsters, black cats, witches, and ghosts, and more are all magical to make and decorate, whether you decorate store-bought or homemade cupcakes.

Black Cat Cupcakes

Black cat cupcakes are anything but bad luck! Instead, these Halloween treats will charm guests when served at a Halloween party. And these yellow-eyed sweets are easy to make.

Follow these cupcake decorating steps to create these superstitious cupcakes:

1. Frost each cupcake with chocolate frosting.

2. Pour chocolate sprinkles into a bowl. Lightly press the top of each cupcake into the sprinkles to coat the frosting with sprinkles.

3. Cut a yellow gumdrop in half to use as eyes. Cut short pieces of black shoestring licorice to use as pupils, and press onto the cut side of each gumdrop half. Lightly press each gumdrop half into cupcakes to form eyes.

4. Cut chocolate candy coating disks into triangles to serve as ears. Press two triangles into the frosting from the side.

5. Cut pieces of black shoestring licorice for whiskers. Arrange on top of cupcake as desired. Pipe a dot of chocolate frosting into the center of the whiskers for a nose.

1. Generously pipe frosting onto a 2-1/2-inch cupcake. Remove paper bake cup from a 1-3/4-inch cupcake and place the small cupcake, upside down, on top of the large cupcake. Generously pipe frosting on top of small cupcake. Top with a doughnut hole. Use frosting to secure any unstable parts of the stack.

2. On parchment paper, roll a 1-1/2-inch-diameter ball of fondant into a 6-inch-diameter circle. Drape fondant circle loosely over the cupcake stack, pressing or creasing fondant to make the stack look more ghostlike.

3. Use frosting to attach candy-coated sunflower kernels to the fondant for eyes and mouth, or use black icing to pipe eyes and mouth.

Candy Cupcakes

Start these not-so-scary cupcakes with Halloween-hued icing. The orange and brown frostings make a foundation perfect for adhering Halloween candies. You're not limited to one type of candy—turn any of your favorites into Halloween cupcake decorations.

To make these Halloween cupcakes, use these decorating steps:

1. Make or purchase a batch of buttercream frosting. Use food coloring to tint half orange and the other half brown. You can use melted chocolate or chocolate frosting if you don't have brown food coloring. Frost half of the cupcakes orange and half brown.

Monster-Eyes Cupcakes

Swirling eyes and sharp white teeth are sure to spook your party guests! With just a few easy ingredients like candy and snack cakes, you can serve up sweet but spooky Halloween cupcakes perfect for every Halloween party.

To make these Halloween cupcakes, follow these steps:

1. Pipe frosting high onto prepared cupcakes. Carefully cut chocolate-swirl snack cakes into 1/4-inch-thick slices for the swirly monster eyes. The chocolate coating on the cakes will crack off easily, so be careful during this step. Or just remove the outer chocolate layer altogether.

2. Press the eyes onto the frosting atop the cupcakes. Cut round gummy candies in half and press them into the sides of the frosting as ears.

3. Cut black licorice into small pieces and attach as noses. Press gum or mints into the frosting to create teeth.

Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes

With such a simple design, these pumpkin cupcakes can be made quickly. While fitting for Halloween, they’re also a perfect fall cupcake for any autumn occasion. You can populate your pumpkin patch with regular or mini Halloween cupcakes—for guests who want a bite-size dessert.

7 Adorable Fall Cupcakes

Your Halloween baking isn't complete until you've made cupcakes that can be enjoyed for Halloween and throughout the fall season. Celebrate the harvest with seven seasonal treats, decorated to look like cute pumpkins, spooky graveyards, and even corncobs.

Marshmallow Frankenstein Cupcake

With iconic neck bolts made from pretzels and monster green hue from spray icing, these marshmallow Frankenstein cupcake toppers are alive with yummy sweetness in the the form of spooky Halloween cupcake.

To make Frankenstein cupcakes, follow these steps:

1. Spray white frosting and a marshmallow with green spray icing.

2. Break a pretzel stick in half; press pieces into each side of the marshmallow to make neck bolts.

Creepy Medusa Cupcake

To make this fun monster, follow these Halloween cupcake decorating steps:

1. Frost a cupcake with chocolate frosting.

2. Cut gummy worms into long, thin strips. Curl and pile strips on top of cupcake.

3. For eyes, use chocolate frosting to attach two round white candies to the cupcake. Partially bury the eyes in the pile of worms. Place chocolate frosting in a decorating bag fitted with a small round tip to pipe center dots on candy eyes.

Dotty Halloween Cupcakes

These spots might make guests swoon, but the sweet treats will revive them. The polka-dot patterns on these Halloween-theme cupcakes are easy to re-create, yet the impact on your buffet is impressive.

To make these Halloween cupcakes, follow these decorating steps:

1. Bake or buy regular-size and mini cupcakes. Frost half of the cupcakes with chocolate frosting and half with orange frosting.

2. Arrange candy-coated milk chocolate pieces, such as M&Ms, on top of the frosted cupcakes. Use orange candies on the chocolate-frosted cupcakes and brown candies on the orange-frosted cupcakes to create polka-dot contrast in classic Halloween colors.

Haunted Graveyard Cupcakes

No horror stories here. The whispers that haunt these creepy plots speak of delightful cookies-and-cream cupcakes. Despite specters of shadowy ghosts and unearthly wanderers, these spooky Halloween cupcakes enshroud only good things.

To make each tombstone Halloween cupcake, follow these decorating steps:

1. Split a chocolate sandwich cookie in half. Remove and discard filling. Using a serrated knife, cut a cookie half to make a tombstone shape. Crush remaining cookie and trimmings. Pipe a message in white frosting onto flat side of tombstone.

2. Place melted chocolate candy coating in a heavy resealable plastic bag; snip off a small corner. Pipe a leafless tree, 3 to 4 inches tall (make it thick so it won't break when hardened), onto a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Chill until chocolate hardens.

3. Frost a cupcake with white frosting. Insert a cookie tombstone. Use a toothpick to make a small hole in cupcake top. Carefully peel chocolate tree from waxed paper and insert into hole; use frosting to secure tree. If desired, add a candy pumpkin.

4. Place green-tinted frosting in a heavy resealable plastic bag; snip off a small corner. Using quick upward motions, pipe grass accents around tombstone, tree, and pumpkin. Sprinkle cupcake with crushed cookies.

Halloween Ghost Cupcake

You can pick from a variety of Halloween cupcake recipes for the base of this dessert—the real magic comes from the ghostly design on top. Marshmallow creme is the secret behind this spooky Halloween treat. The orange frosting on the cupcake helps make the spooky ghoul pop.

To make the cupcake, follow these steps:

1. Microwave 1 cup marshmallow creme (enough for eight cupcakes) in a microwave-safe bowl on high 20 seconds or until warm. Cool slightly. Place in a large heavy-duty resealable plastic bag; snip one corner and pipe a ghost shape onto a frosted cupcake.

2. Quickly attach chocolate chips or other small candies for ghost eyes and mouth before marshmallow creme sets.

Blue Monster Cupcake

If you're in the mood to decorate, this monster Halloween cupcake recipe is a great afternoon project for you and your little helpers. This goofy and spooky blue cupcake is as much fun to make as it is to eat.

To make the Halloween cupcake, follow these steps:

1. Tint frosting teal and ice the cupcake.

2. Tint small amounts of fondant rose and green. Shape small balls of each color into curved and tapered horns; insert into the cupcake. To ensure the horns retain their shapes, prepare and let dry 48 hours before attaching.

3. Tint a small amount of fondant blue and a small amount pink. Roll pink and blue fondant each 1/16 inch thick. Form into ear shapes using scissors; insert into the cupcake.

4. Pipe on frosting eyes and pupils with a small round decorating tip.

5. Tint frosting red; pipe on a mouth using a small round decorating tip.

Green Bow Monster Cupcake

With its multiple eyes and long pink tongue, this monster cupcake has character. A green fondant bow rests atop her head—a great finishing touch for this monster Halloween treat.

To make this fun Halloween-theme cupcake, follow these steps:

1. For the bow, tint fondant leaf green and roll 1/16 inch thick. Cut two 1-1/2x1/4-inch strips. Fold ends toward the center and pinch ends together. Cut a 2x1/4-inch strip and notch a V on each end; let dry. Lay folded strip on top of the notched strip. Cut a 1/4x1-inch strip and wrap the center, flattening the ends on the back.

4. Place frosted tops over gumdrop halves on cupcakes, tipping each top back slightly to form a mouth.

5. For eyes, attach a small piece of black candy to a slice of marshmallow; insert a small piece of black licorice into bottom of marshmallow slice. Press into cupcake. (Or make eyes from gumdrop pieces and small black candies and/or marshmallow halves, gumdrop pieces, and small black candies.)

6. For teeth, cut marshmallows into pieces or use white small oval mints.

7. For tongues, lay a fruit leather roll flat; fold and press together to make four layers. Use scissors to cut out tongue shapes.

Monster Mash Cupcakes

Twice the sweet in one monster treat, thanks to a macaroon and a cupcake. Purchase or make royal icing eyeballs (you’ll find edible eyeball decorations at hobby stores and some grocery stores). Create the eyelashes by piping the shape onto waxed paper. Place an eyeball and set of eyelashes onto a macaroon cookie. Attach the cookie to a lollipop stick and place the stick into a cupcake that's been frosted with a multiopening tip.